Sea Dragon is bucking at her mooring in Cape Town, trying to get to sea. Skipper Dale Selvam called in this morning with an unusual challenge for our ocean going vessel. The wind, it seems, is particularly difficult in the harbor. Despite the shelter, they are getting 55kt gust in the main harbor area. This in itself would not stop the boat- and has been a regular condition on several of the last legs. However, between the boat and the open sea are two draw bridges and some tight passages. Winds like this blowing across the boat could put her in danger of striking the bridges or dock sides. Several other yachts in the same basin have either been hit trying to pass through, or reported near misses.

Dale has every hope the team will be able to push out today- perhaps with the help of a zodiac inflatable acting as a safety tug. Once outside, the team will have the wind at their backs and a fast run north to the remote desert harbor of Walvis Bay, Namibia. The wind is accelerating around the cape -clearly visible in this weather image from Passage Weather. Look at the bright yellow patch just off the SW corner of the continent. That is Cape Town and Sea Dragon’s dilemma. Ironically, the open sea is where they will find calm conditions and smooth sailing.

Lets keep a close watch and wish the crew best of luck dealing with this unusual challenge!

We have a small, but very close knit team at Pangaea- particularly given that we are normally scattered all across the globe. We are in California, Emily is working from her home base in the UK, Clive is also in the UK and Dale is…where he usually is – the boat.

Dale just called in his usual low key, “yeah, whatever” tone to relay that he’d passed his “oceans”. Oceans is short for Royal Yachmaster Association (RYA) Oceans Skipper. Dale has now passed the highest UK standard for sailing vessel yacht leadership. He is cleared for all “oceans” with no limits as a commercial skipper. RYA is the official endorsement agency of the UK government’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Sea Dragon falls under the UK jurisdiction due to her Cayman Island (UK) registration.

We’ve known Dale for almost two years now- and sailed personally with him for across the Atlantic, into shallow muddy rivers of Guyana, through the Caribbean, and just recently on a spectacular dive expedition off Brazil. Through all of this, Dale has shown an exceptional range of seamanship skills and personal leadership. Great mariners I have known combine technical sailing proficiency, navigation, piloting (not the same thing as navigation), mechanical aptitude of an engineer, and the personal leadership ability to bring a team through tough times. Dale has excelled at all.

Dale, our sincere congratulations and respect for a job well done! We are all proud to have you as such an important part of the Pangaea team.

Dale is now in final preparation for the return leg across the Atlantic. This is first up to Walvis Bay Namibia, one of the most arid landscapes on earth. From there, the team will sail out to St. Helena Island and then onto Montevideo. Almost 4,000 miles later they will have made the third research crossing of the South Atlantic Gyre.

Listen to Jonathan Marland speaking to Clive Cosby on the satellite phone from the middle of the South Atlantic Gyre.

ITV News

OK, enough news from the high seas adventures of the South Atlantic, lets take a break over the holidays for a bit of local perspective. The youngest (age 12) member of Pangaea’s Team is Alexandra Towner from Atlanta. She is the kind of nature kid that has Croc Hunter pictures on her wall and a lizard named Blue in her bedroom. Alexandra recently went to the Gulf of Mexico shores to have a look at what’s happening now several months after the BP Deep Water Horizon well blew….

11-23-10 (day one)
I headed to the beach in the late afternoon, and I couldn’t help but notice a huge machine heading away from us. We later discovered that it was sifting through the sand and removing little bits of oil as part of the restoration. The effect was that the sand was really light and fluffy, perfectly groomed and really fun to run in with bare feet I was pretty happy that they were following up on the beach cleanup and doing a good job at it too. It looked like there was still equipment in place to block of any oil from entering nearby estuaries. As I neared the water though, the first thing I saw was washed up man-o-wars along the coast line. I hoped that this was a naturally occurring process and not something related to the oil spill.

11-24-10 (day two)
We went to the beach again today and I didn’t see nearly as many washed up man-o-wars as I did yesterday (11-23-10). I remained hopeful that the washing up of the man-o-wars was a natural process, unrelated to the oil. On a more positive note, we saw a large pod of dolphins about 30-50 yards off shore. My Dad thought there must have been 15-20 of them. It looked like they were both hunting and playing; there weren’t many big waves for them to catch but when the waves did arrive, the dolphins took the time to play and frolic. It was wonderful to see wild animals actually playing for the sake of having fun.

11-25-10 (day three)
It was a different story today; the place was a grave yard of man-o-wars. There must have been thousands that had washed up on our stretch of beach. My Dad went for a 30 minute walk in both directions and didn’t see any decline in the numbers. To my surprise, I noticed that most of the other people on the beach were not alarmed at all by the washed up man-o-wars. I couldn’t believe it, they were boogie boarding and fishing in the water with those things floating around them. My grandfather was telling me stories of my uncle getting badly stung off Corpus Christy when he was about 10. No thanks, I didn’t want to chance it, so I made a huge dolphin sculpture in the sand instead. Here are some pictures that we took of the man-o-wars washed up along the coast.

Just arrived a 1300hrs Eastern US Time:

We can see Table Mt at 40Nm … sailing along lovely evening. Clive

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Latest position and report

33.31.32S 017.05.93E 70.5Nm to go … all well low on fuel and little wind hopefully 0000 arrival 8th. Clive

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Please be kind and keep your replies short.Sea Dragon team is really pressing hard now. It is amazing- and absolutely normal – that after almost a month and thousands of miles the team is now counting down hours and close range distances. Welcome back!

The specific challenge they are facing is light winds right now, but incoming ship reports over the VHF and our own weather data indicating high winds on apporoach. Best we can tell this is a weather system- passing ahead to the east. Winds are compressing against the Cape Town coastline and accellerating. Looks like it will just clear out ahead of them…or maybe not…

You can see it on the weather graphic below-

Just in across the Satphone – urgency rises from the calm of a long crossing- the world of the ocean wilderness begins to melt away as land and busy times quickly approach –

Oh to be in CT drinking local brew! Instead we are 202Nm to go hard on the wind and slamming into it – 25-30knots! but progressing well, 7.5knots almost on course. current ETA 8th pm, probably late … plus think they are 2 hours ahead of GMT … we will all be please to see Table Mt, think some will be sprinting off the boat !!!
33.29.42S
014.27.09E at 1330 GMT
Clive
ps Emily I have an ITV studio interview next week … great opportunity would it be possible for you to send me that plastic trash that we spoke about in Isla G, then I can pass it on to Aquarium after as we collecedt trash but less then North Atlantic and I will have zero opportunity for beach combing – i need samples for Aquarium and to illustrate my points with itv – thank-you, Clive

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We’re now on the southeastern edge of the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, on the home stretch to Cape Town, South Africa.  We’ve had the joy of a week of spectacular weather, and even a Minke whale traveled alongside our boat for a while today, breaching the surface to show its pointy dorsal fin.   The sea surface is calm, relative to the storms we had a week ago.  It almost looks glassy at times.  We’re still trawling.

Every sample contains plastic, but it’s different.  “What’s all that string in there?” a crewmember chimes in, as the hi-speed trawl comes in over the rail.  The end of the net is heavy with slimy salps.  Hovering in the net between them are dozens of plastic fragments, like confetti.  But also there long pieces of colored nylon and monofilament fishing line.  It is unusual.  This has happened before, the way plastic in the trawl changes with the weather.  But why?

When the wind and waves become calm, the plastic rises. In higher sea states plastic is churned below the surface.  Larger fragments stay on top.  In our trawls conducted during 8-10 foot seas, we only found large, pea-sized fragments.  There was no line, and no small fragments.  Now, this has changed.  Monofilament line and nylon are relatively close to the density of seawater, so it doesn’t take much to drag them down.  But after a few days of calm, these types of plastic slowly migrate to the surface.

One big question yet to be answered is, “What is the effect of sea state on the vertical distribution of plastic pollution?”  Our experience sailing 4000 miles across the South Atlantic Ocean is giving us a glimpse at the answer.

December 1st at 1200 GMT Sea Dragon is at 33.00.02S / 002.40.14W…

“All well no wind … need some please. Clive”